The Concept of Firestopping

The concept is basic; impede the passage of fire, smoke and toxic gases from one side of a fire-rated assembly to another using an installed firestopping system which limits amount of damaged caused by fire and protects building occupants and property. These systems include firestop products, backing materials, building materials of the wall and floors and the specific instructions for how it is all installed. Applications such as pipes or cables passing through a rated wall or floor, and the intersection of two rated wall/floor assemblies are examples of common conditions encountered every day. It is critical to maintain the fire-rating of the assemblies while allowing for the penetrants to move throughout the building or the assemblies to intersect.

For the interior finishing professional, a common application is the head of wall (or top-of-wall), where a fire-rated wall ascends to the underside of a rated floor assembly above. This intersection is critical in the aspect of fire protection as it creates the boundaries of these compartments, while also providing for movement of the floor above. This movement is caused by numerous factors such as dynamic loads, wind and thermal expansion or contraction, just to name a few.